


understand

by eerian_sadow



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-14
Updated: 2007-10-14
Packaged: 2017-10-17 19:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/180324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone has to be there when there's no one else, with no regrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	understand

**Author's Note:**

> written for springkink in 2007 for the prompt: Final Fantasy VII, Aeris/Zack: Comfort - “Don’t regret this life I chose for me.”  
> 

  
She was crying in the middle of her flowers when he came into the church. She looked so much smaller, so much younger, hunched over like that. Crying made her so vulnerable, so much weaker than he knew she really was.

He walked up to her with quiet steps, not wanting to startle her. She turned as he stepped into the flowers, her expression flashing from sorrow to fear to something approaching glad to see him.

“Baby, what’s wrong?” he asked, extending his uninjured arm to her.

“Tseng told me what happened,” she said, standing up into his embrace. “I didn’t think you were coming home again.”

“It wasn’t that bad, babe.” He pulled her tight against his chest. “Just a dark dragon. Besides, its mostly healed.”

“You can’t even move your left arm and you say it wasn’t that bad?” Her eyes locked onto his. “If that isn’t bad, what is?”

He didn’t hesitate in his answer. “You not being here when I get back.”

It was a legitimate fear. Shinra had been after her for so long that it would make far too much sense for them to take her while he was on a mission. She may have been friends with the Turks, but sometimes orders were orders.

“Why do you do it?” she asked after a long silence. “When you know what can happen, why?”

“Because,” he said softly, “If I didn’t, there might not be anyone else. No one to run the monsters out of the small towns. No instructor for the first year cadets. No one to watch Seph’s back when he doesn’t know he’s in over his head. No one to keep you safe.”

Her eyes teared up at this. “I still don’t understand.”

“I want to do this. I didn’t get drafted or transferred from some other unit. I signed on to the SOLDIER program to do exactly what I’m doing.” He leaned down and kissed a tear off her cheek. “I am doing exactly what I want to do. Don’t regret the life I chose for me; I don’t.”

Her expression clearly said that she didn’t like it. “I’ll still worry about you.”

“Wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”

“I love you.”

He pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “Love you, too.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

She looked at Cloud, unconscious, trying to heal from Sephiroth’s attack at the Temple. It didn’t take much for the Planet to make her understand what she needed to. Her choice was made almost without her making it.

She placed a gentle kiss on Cloud’s forehead and stood. She would tell Tifa where she was going; she owed the others at least that much.

“I understand now, Zack. I don’t regret it either.”  



End file.
